Submitted by: Jane Stephens Rhem


STEPHENS, WILLIAM

Surnames: STEPHENS

My gg-grandfather, William Stephens, with wife, Martha Cobb and their first two sons, Wallace and John Moses...left Calhoun County (Benton Co.) Alabama following the Civil War in 1866. They travelled by wagon for 2 months and arrived at Ft. Sullivan, Texas in December of 1866. They settled in Falls County near Marlin where they farmed and raised livestock. William died at at Rosebud in 1917. He had been with the 51st AL Cavalry - Co. D...and was imprisoned at Ft. Delaware. His biography is found in "Early Settlers of the Lone Star State"..He was a member of Odd Fellows. His son John Moses was my ggrandfather..and his son R.W. was my grandfather. My father was Roger William Stephens, born in Marlin in 1910...a decorated WWII veteran who flew as radio man in the B-17 bomber in the south pacific. The radio call sign "Roger" was for my father... a code developed between the radio operators. When he retired from the Air Force, my father went to work with the space program at the Cape in Florida in 1957 and was instrumental in the installation of the down range communications system used in tracking the launches from the Cape. He died in 1966.


Permission granted to post on this web page by: Jane Stephens Rhem